


The Proper Words

by FanficsbyVe



Category: Dark Souls III
Genre: Disability, Fluff, Other, Sign Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-22 08:15:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7427071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanficsbyVe/pseuds/FanficsbyVe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Horace the Hushed has a friendly chat with Irina of Carim and the Fire Keeper. One-shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Proper Words

**Author's Note:**

> The manual alphabet that Horace uses is one employed by the Helen Keller Insitute, founded by the famous blind and deaf author of the same name. The method, however, was used well before her, being successfully employed by Dr. Howe while teaching the blind and deaf Laura Bridgman and was developed in monastries to communicate while taking a vow of silence. The official system was created in the 1800s, but since braille also exists in the world of Dark Souls (which was invented around the same time), I don't think it feels too much out of place.

“I am so very tired, Horace. I think I am going to sleep.”

Horace nodded, not missing the tiredness in his companion’s voice. He didn’t blame Anri for wanting to rest. The journey to the Firelink Shrine had been a long and grueling one and as she was in a less advanced state of Hollowing than he was, fatigue still hit her much harder than it did him.

He watched how she curled up on her bedroll, tossing and turning a couple of times before finding a comfortable position and falling asleep. He quietly put a blanket over her, checking quickly if she was alright. When he was certain she was sleeping and didn’t seem to experience any nightmares, he turned away satisfied, leaving her to her rest. 

Still, with Anri asleep, and he himself not in need of rest, he had to occupy his time some other way. Normally, he would read, but today he felt like talking to other people. Of course, in his case, he would not talk to them in the literal scene.

Many assumed Horace’s inability to speak was a result of him slowly hollowing, but that was far from the truth. As a young boy, he had once been attacked by a rabid wild dog. The animal had grabbed him by the throat and he certainly would’ve died had Anri not beaten it off with a stick and got him to a healer. He survived the attack, but his vocal chords were irreversibly damaged, only allowing him to make a grunting noise. By now, he had long since got over the loss of his voice. What bothered him most was the reaction of his environment.

Most people pitied him upon learning he was mute, but he himself despised that mentality. Despite not being able to speak, he had found plenty of other ways to communicate. Enjoying learning as much as fighting and refusing to feel sorry for himself, he had taken a keen interest in communicating with a disability. He could read and write including braille, use sign language and those closest to him had become quite adept at reading his lips and body language. Especially Anri could understand him with only a look and growing up, he had never been without friends.

Still, Anri was currently resting and he was not familiar with any of the other occupants of the shrine. Even so, he felt like socializing. He decided it never hurt to try, so he got up and went around the shrine, looking for someone to talk to.

It didn’t take long for him to notice someone in the far corner of the shrine. A young woman, dressed in white, who seemed to huddle into the darkness. He had seen her come in here a while ago with a knight, but the man seemed to be gone most of the time. She had to be awfully lonely and he figured that perhaps, she might enjoy the company.

So he approached, careful not to scare her. He tended to evoke such a reaction in people, even before he was hollowing. He had not been an unattractive man back then, but his scars and size combined with the noises he made usually made for a terrible first impression. 

Still, he noticed she didn’t seem to respond to him until he drew very near. When she did look up, he noticed her eyes were white and unfocused. That gave him pause for a moment. The woman was likely blind.

Her words only confirmed this. “H-Hello, who is there? I do not think I have met you yet… Please, say something. For I cannot see.”

Horace thought for a moment on what to do. It seemed a bit rude to just stand there and stare at her. He could not let her know that he was mute the usual way and while he had avidly studied braille, he didn’t have any materials to create it. So instead, he opted for attempting to use his voice, to let her know of his predicament. 

Instantly, her face lit up in understanding and she turned her face away in embarrassment. “Oh, you…cannot speak. I am so sorry…”

For a second, Horace considered moving on and leaving her be. After all, it was going to be difficult to communicate when she couldn’t see and he didn’t have the materials to allow her to use braille. Still, he felt rather awful about just leaving her like that and he wracked his brain to think of a solution.

Then it occurred to him that there was indeed a way to communicate for the two of them. A different kind of sign language, which he had learned while he and Anri stayed in a monastery. Especially if she was a nun, like her clothing suggested, she would likely know this method as well. He carefully reached out and took her hand, startling her slightly. 

“Wh-what are you doing?”

He gently held her hand with both of his, turning it upwards as he sat beside her. He took off one of his heavy gauntlets and pressed the fingers of his now unclothed hand against the woman’s palm. He then started to spell a word. 

H-E-L-L-O.

The woman stilled for a moment, only for her eyes to go wide. “Oh… You know the manual alphabet!”

Almost immediately, a smile came onto her face. “Well, hello to you too. I am Irina of Carim. What is your name?”

He responded by spelling it onto her palm and she laughed. “Nice to meet you, Horace! Where are you from?”

He smiled, writing the word “Astora” before asking her what brought her here from Carim. It wasn’t long before she was telling a fascinating tale about her life in Carim, glad to have someone for company. Horace listened politely, occasionally asking questions by spelling them onto her hand. 

She was all too eager to answer them and after she was done, she asked him for his story. He only happily obliged, telling her about his life in Astora. He told her about the dog bite, his studies to communicate while mute, his escape from Aldrich with Anri and the many interesting people he met along the way. His favorite stories involved the pranks he liked to pull on his fellow knights when he joined the Blue Sentinels and it pleased him immensely he could make this sad, lonely girl smile.

Soon, the two of them were laughing and having a great time together, enough that the other occupants of the shrine started to notice. The Fire Keeper soon came over to investigate. Even though the tiara she wore covered her unseeing eyes, he could see worry in the rest of her face.

“Is everything well?”

Irina laughed and nodded. “Yes, dearest Fire Keeper. We did not mean to startle you. Horace and I are merely conversing.”

Horace looked this woman up and down curiously, wondering if she perhaps understood the manual alphabet as well. After all, there was a good chance if she was a holy woman herself before becoming a Fire Keeper. He reached out and took her hand, spelling the words to what they were doing.

T-A-L-K-I-N-G. A-B-O-U-T. H-O-M-E.

Instantly, she turned her head towards him. She stared him up and down and her entire body language conveyed understanding. Then she smiled, surprised but sincere.

“It is a long time since someone communicated with me that way. Hast thou studied at a monastery, Horace?”

Before he had even thoroughly realized it, the Fire Keeper had sat down beside them and participated in the conversation. It turned out to be easy enough to communicate with two blind people this way. He would simply spell out his story to one of the women and she would verbally relate it to the other. It didn’t take long before their communication ran like clockwork and everyone became increasingly more at ease.

Any topic was good enough to discuss. Miracles, life back at home, bawdy jokes. Sometimes, there was a tear and others, there was a chuckle, but there quickly came to be a sense of comfortable familiarity. Soon, the three of them were talking like they were old friends and for a moment, the world wasn’t ending. They were just three people, sharing some joy and familiarity in a miserable world. For once, none of them were defined by what they couldn’t do and Horace was glad that he had indeed bothered to reach out, to find the proper words for people to whom communication did not always come easy. 

He had no idea how long they were conversing, but it must have been a while. Anri had already woken up and was looking for him by the time he looked up again. He waved her over and she quickly approached. She laughed when she saw what he was doing.

“Were you off making friends, Horace?”

The Fire Keeper and Irina looked at her, smiling. “Oh, you must be Anri. Horace has told us a lot about you! Are you two leaving again for your quest?”

Horace saw how Anri gave him an amused look, clearly impressed with how much he had managed to convey. “I fear so. Aldrich will not vanquish himself. So I am afraid I must steal my friend from you once more.”

The two blind women nodded and Horace got up. He spelled a word of farewell onto both their hands and also thanked them for their lovely company. They returned the gesture verbally and with a last friendly squeeze of their hands, he got up, ready to go with Anri for another day of fighting.

There was a certain spring in his step, a sense of contentment as he conversed with Anri about what he had learned from the two women. Perhaps, he figured, that was why despite his appearance hollowing, his mind was still going strong. He had something to live for and he had always stubbornly clung onto that despite not being able to express it in words. Especially if it meant he could be there for people like Anri and those two women at the shrine.

He would eventually hollow. That much he knew for certain. Yet like everything else in his life, he refused to mourn that or even take it lying down. Until then, he decided, he wanted to be happy and bring happiness to others. He had never let anyone stop him from doing those things before and he certainly wasn’t going to let anyone do that now.


End file.
